Sam's journey to a heart valve replacement

Sam Davidson has a heart condition, but now leads a healthy and active life.

Sam has congenital heart disease, and was born with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) and aortic valve incompetence (a leaky valve). He had annual checkups, but his condition didn’t affect him much as a child and into his early adult life.

“Looking back, I grew up with as normal a childhood as I could imagine. I had my annual checkups and was aware that my heart was a bit different, but it never actually stopped me from doing anything.”

That all changed with a particularly bad bout of flu in his early thirties which led to him getting endocarditis. It’s a serious, but rare, condition, and caused him to have a six week spell in hospital.

Scans suggested Sam would benefit from an operation to repair his VSD and leaky valve. In 2000, the VSD was repaired successfully, but the attempt to fix his leaky valve was not.

You can get out there, do what you want to do, if you can put your mind to it.

The impact of his leaky valve continued to worsen, and his quality of life deteriorated. In 2005, he was offered an operation to replace his leaky heart valve. Sam had it replaced with a tissue valve, which has proven very successful. Sam now leads a happy, active and very outgoing life.

“After the operation, I got back into doing everything I was beforehand. I’m probably as fit now, if not fitter, than what I’ve ever been in my life.”